US government’s addiction to war and military spending fuels its chronic debt crisis

In the year 2000, the US government debt was $3.5-trillion, equal to 35% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2022, the debt was $24-trillion, equal to 95% of GDP. The US debt is soaring, hence America’s current debt crisis. Yet both Republicans and Democrats are missing the solution: stopping America’s wars of choice and slashing military outlays.  

Suppose the government’s debt had remained at a modest 35% of GDP, as in 2000. Today’s debt would be $9-trillion, as opposed to $24-trillion. Why did the US government incur the excess $15-trillion in debt?

The single biggest answer is the US government’s addiction to war and military spending. According to the Watson Institute at Brown University, the cost of US wars from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year 2022 amounted to a whopping $8-trillion, more than half of the extra $15-trillion in debt. The other $7-trillion arose roughly equally from budget deficits caused by the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

To surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), the most powerful lobby in Washington. As president Dwight D Eisenhower famously warned on 17 January, 1961, “in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Since 2000, the MIC led the US into disastrous wars of choice in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine.

The Military-Industrial Complex long ago adopted a winning political strategy by ensuring that the military budget reaches into every Congressional district. The Congressional Research Service recently reminded Congress that “defence spending touches every Member of Congress’s district through pay and benefits for military service members and retirees, economic and environmental impact of installations, and procurement of weapons systems and parts from local industry, among other activities.”

Only a brave member of Congress would vote against the military-industry lobby, yet bravery is certainly no hallmark of Congress.  

America’s annual military spending is now around $900-billion, roughly 40% of the world’s total, and greater than the next 10 countries combined. US military spending in 2022 was triple that of China.

While America’s wars of choice have been awful for America, they have been far greater disasters for countries that America purports to be saving. As Henry Kissinger famously quipped, “to be an enemy of the United States can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.” Afghanistan was America’s cause during 2001 to 2021, until the US left it broken, bankrupt, and hungry. Ukraine is now in America’s embrace, with the same likely results: ongoing war, death, and destruction.